Carlsen – Karjakin Game 11

Did you survive Black Friday, aka the day in which no game was played in the Chess World Championship match? It may have been good for at least 7% of the Norwegians to have a day off to get some sleep.

@kristolo: “Yesterday 7% of the Norwegian population watched almost seven hours of chess. Yes, seven.”

Not everybody is excited about the match, though: @memesupporter: “watching fucking chess world championship with dad what did magnus carlsen do to this country”.

Many people follow the match live on TV (mainly in Norway, obviously) or the Internet, but there is an old-fashioned way to follow the games, which is still popular. Tell me all about it @christophAzone: “Spannender geht’s kaum: Schach auf Videotext.”

Teletext or Videotext is still popular in many European countries. From Wikipedia:“Teletext is a means of sending text and simple geometric shapes to a properly equipped television screen by use of one of the “vertical blanking interval” lines that together form the dark band dividing pictures horizontally on the television screen.

In The Netherlands, you can follow big events like the Tata Steel Chess Tournament live on “Teletekst” as it is called. Every chess journalist who visits Wijk aan Zee knows Richard de Weger, who has his own corner in the press room, where he takes care of move updates and writes round reports, exclusively for Teletekst.

Have a look on the (Dutch) website Teletekst and search for page 691 , 692 and 693 for reports, standings and the games of the world championship.

A few years ago I had an interview with the tournament director of the Tata Steel Chess tournament, Jeroen van den Berg @jvdbergchess about chess & modern technology. When I asked him for his most-used app on his phone, he answered: “The Teletekst app!”

Game 11

Marthine Marthinsen us getting ready for the game: @marthinmclaren: “Testing testing: VGTV on 55″.NRK2 on 15,6″.Twitter on 5,7″.Back-up in the toilet 17,3″.Prosecco in the fridge.All is good “.

Some people are ready for the game, but are not allowed to watch: @ldnhal:“Chess is even more boring than football”. My better half. No chance of watching Carlsen-Karjakin on telly or MOTD”.

@gmplines has similar problems: “Only a couple more days and I will no longer need to fend off “you love chess more than me” accusations”.

@britt_dj has a tweet for Sergey: “Don’t stare into the abyss tonight Sergey. The abyss is a cocky bastard. Hasn’t lost a staring contest yet”.

@joshfriedel: “Note on match dynamics: Imagine how different the outlook of the match would be had they drawn all ten games.”

And what do we expect today? @Rohan_rk7: “Expecting a sicilian defense. Not another Ruy Lopez , For god’s sake”.

And what did we get on board? Right.

@birdingvicar: “There was a time at school when the only opening people knew was RuyLopez. Seems it’s the same with Carlsen-Karjakin”. @Al_pal_Borealis:“Can we please impose a temporary ban on Spanish opening?”

@britt_dj: “This looks like a Spanish version of the Grand Prix attack. Weird hybrid.”

@acerthecatrun: “Seems like everyone on twitter would draw this. Either colour, either opponent. Eyes closed.”

Let’s ask the Twitter grandmasters then, shall we?

@anishgiri:“Feels like Black got a better version of what he is supposed to get from this variation. If 18…e5!? I put $ on Carlsen”.

@Jonathan_Rowson: Fascinated by the positional physics behind Magnus’s decision to play ..c3 & ..d5. Strategy is about energy, not just mass.”

But the game was not really exciting, @chessknights: “With every move game is heading towards a draw. Unless one of them does an unforced error”.

@telegraphchess:“Carlsen smoothly emerged from what seemed a slightly worse position made easy draw c3! and d5! v well timed score 5.5-5.5”.

Teymur Rajabov had a good tweet after the game ended in a draw: @rajachess:“Good Good! Good game , good draw, good match situation for both, good perspectives, good show. Good”

@EuropeEchecs: “Draw is good because I have «Mr. Robot» episode 11 and 12 to see!”

@rajachess: “I think Sergey is ok with a draw and he will seek his chances in Carlsen’s last white game. Both shaky, both in bad shape will be exciting!”

The last classical game will be on Monday, because there is another rest day on Sunday: @CazHansen:” It is indeed odd that none of the three weekends could contain games on both days. For the 12th game, an extra day off is OK”.

One last tweet: @theosladechess: “Scrolling through all the tweets containing #CarlsenKarjakin makes me realize just how many people are following this incredible match.”